JOAN FONTAINE (1917-2013)

Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (October 22, 1917 – December 15, 2013), known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was a British-American actress who is best known for her starring roles in Hollywood films during the "Golden Age". Fontaine appeared in more than 45 films in a career that spanned five decades. She was the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland. Their rivalry was well-documented in the media at the height of Fontaine's career.

She began her film career in 1935, signing a contract with RKO Pictures. Fontaine received her first major role in The Man Who Found Himself (1937) and in 1939 with Gunga Din. Her career prospects improved greatly after her starring role in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), for which she received her first of three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. The following year, she won that award for her role in Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941). A third nomination came with The Constant Nymph (1943). She appeared mostly in drama films through the 1940s, including Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), which is now considered a classic. In the next decade, after her role in Ivanhoe (1952), her film career began to decline and she moved into stage, radio and television roles. She appeared in fewer films in the 1960s, which included Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1960), and her final film role in The Witches (1966).

She released an autobiography, No Bed of Roses, in 1978, and continued to act until 1994. Having won an Academy Award for her role in Suspicion, Fontaine is the only actor to have won an Academy Award for acting in a Hitchcock film. She and her sister remain the only siblings to have won major acting Academy Awards.

Fontaine made her stage debut in the West Coast production of Call It a Day (1935) and made her film debut in MGM's No More Ladies (1935) in which she was credited as Joan Burfield. She was Herman Brix's leading lady in a low budget independent film, A Million to One (1937).

RKO

Fontaine signed a contract with RKO Pictures. Her first film for the studio was Quality Street (1937) starring Katharine Hepburn, in which Fontaine had a small unbilled role.

The studio considered her a rising star, and touted The Man Who Found Himself (1937) with John Beal as her first starring role, placing a special screen introduction, billed as the "new RKO screen personality" after the end credit. Fontaine later said it had "an A budget but a Z story."

RKO put her in You Can't Beat Love (1937) with Preston Foster and Music for Madame (1937) with Nino Martini.

She next appeared in a major role alongside Fred Astaire in his first RKO film without Ginger Rogers, A Damsel in Distress (1937). Despite being directed by George Stevens, audiences were disappointed and the film flopped. She was top billed in the comedies Maid's Night Out (1938) and Blond Cheat (1938) then was Richard Dix's leading lady in Sky Giant (1938).

Edward Small borrowed her to play Louis Hayward's love interest in The Duke of West Point (1938), then Stevens used her at RKO in Gunga Din (1939) as Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s love interest. The film was a huge hit, but Fontaine's part was relatively small. Republic borrowed her to support Dix in Man of Conquest (1939) but her part was small. George Cukor gave her a small role in MGM's The Women (1939).

David O. Selznick and Hitchcock

Fontaine's luck changed one night at a dinner party when she found herself seated next to producer David O. Selznick. Selznick and she began discussing the Daphne du Maurier novel Rebecca, and Selznick asked her to audition for the part of the unnamed heroine. She endured a grueling six-month series of film tests, along with hundreds of other actresses, before securing the part sometime before her 22nd birthday.

Rebecca (1940), starring Laurence Olivier alongside Fontaine, marked the American debut of British director Alfred Hitchcock. The film was released to glowing reviews, and Fontaine was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Fontaine did not win that year (Ginger Rogers took home the award for Kitty Foyle), but she did win the following year for Best Actress in Suspicion, which co-starred Cary Grant and was also directed by Hitchcock. This was the only Academy Award-winning acting performance to have been directed by Hitchcock.

Fontaine was now one of the biggest female stars in Hollywood, although she was typecast in female melodrama. "They seemed to want to make me cry the whole Atlantic", she later said.

20th Century Fox borrowed her to appear opposite Tyrone Power in This Above All (1942) then she went to Warner Brothers to star alongside Charles Boyer in The Constant Nymph. She was nominated for a third Academy Award for her performance in this film.

She also starred as the titular protagonist in the film Jane Eyre that year, which was developed by Selznick then sold to Fox.

During the war she occasionally worked as a nurse's aide.

Fontaine starred in the film Frenchman's Creek (1944). Like Rebecca, this was also based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier. Fontaine personally considered Frenchman's Creek one of her least favorites among the films she starred in.

Selznick wanted to cast her in I'll Be Seeing You (1944) but she refused, saying she was "sick of playing the sad sack." Selznick suspended her for eight months. Eventually she went back to work in The Affairs of Susan (1945) for Hal Wallis at Paramount, her first comedy. She returned to RKO for From This Day Forward (1946).

1960s

Fontaine had the female lead in the popular Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) at Fox. She had a key role in Tender Is the Night (1962) also at Fox.

Most of her 1960s work was done on television or stage. TV shows included General Electric Theater,Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Startime, Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond, Checkmate, The Dick Powell Show, Kraft Television Theatre, Wagon Train, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Bing Crosby Show.

In October 1964 she returned to Broadway to appear in A Severed Head.

She tried a Hammer horror film, The Witches (1966) which she also co produced.

Her stage work included Cactus Flower and an Austrian production of The Lion in Winter.

In 1967 she was in Dial M for Murder in Chicago. The following year she did Private Lives.

She played Forty Carats on Broadway.

Later career

In the 1970s Fontaine appeared in stage shows and toured with a poetry reading.

She returned to Hollywood for the first time in 15 years in 1975 to appear in an episode of Cannon especially written for her. She was in The Users (1978) and was nominated for an Emmy Award for the soap opera Ryan's Hope in 1980.

Fontaine's autobiography, No Bed of Roses, was published in 1978. In 1982, she traveled to Berlin, Germany, and served as a jury president for the Berlin International Film Festival.

In the early 1980s, after 25 years in New York, she moved to Carmel, California. "I have no family ties anymore, so I want to work", she said. "I still host an interview show for cable in New York. I lecture all over the country. But it wasn't enough. My theory is that if you stay busy, you haven't time to grow old. Or at least you don't notice it."

She starred in Aloha Paradise, Bare Essence, and Crossings (1986). She played the lead in a TV movie, Dark Crossings (1986), replacing Loretta Young. She said, "At my time in life, I don't want to do bit parts. Also, Rosalind Russell once said, 'Always escape the mother parts.' And I've avoided them.”

Fontaine's last role for television was in the 1994 TV film Good King Wenceslas, after which she retired to her estate, Villa Fontana, in Carmel Highlands, California, where she spent time in her gardens and with her dogs.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Fontaine has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street. She left her hand and foot prints in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on 26 May 1942.

She was a practicing Episcopalian and a member of Episcopal Actors Guild.

Fontaine was a Democrat who not only supported the run of Adlai Stevenson but also had a personal relationship as well, stating,

We had a tenderness for each other that grew into something rather serious. There was so much speculation about our marrying in the press that over lunch at his apartment in the Waldorf Towers he told me he could not marry an actress. He still had political ambitions and the "little old ladies from Oshkosh" wouldn't approve. I told him it was just as well. My family would hardly approve of my marrying a politician.

FILMOGRAPHY

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1935	No More Ladies	Caroline "Carrie" Rumsey	Credited as Joan Burfield
1937	A Million to One	Joan Stevens
	Quality Street	Charlotte Parratt	Uncredited
	The Man Who Found Himself	Nurse Doris King
	You Can't Beat Love	Trudy Olson
	Music for Madame	Jean Clemens
	A Damsel in Distress	Lady Alyce Marshmorton
1938	Maid's Night Out	Sheila Harrison
	Blond Cheat	Juliette "Julie" Evans
	Sky Giant	Meg Lawrence
	The Duke of West Point	Ann Porter
1939	Gunga Din	Emmy
	Man of Conquest	Eliza Allen
	The Women	Mrs. John Day (Peggy)
1940	Rebecca	The second Mrs. de Winter	Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actress nominated – New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress – directed by Alfred Hitchcock
1941	Suspicion	Lina	Academy Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress – directed by Alfred Hitchcock
1942	This Above All	Prudence Cathaway
1943	The Constant Nymph	Tessa Sanger	Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actress
	Jane Eyre	Jane Eyre (as an adult)
1944	Frenchman's Creek	Dona St. Columb
1945	The Affairs of Susan	Susan Darell
1946	From This Day Forward	Susan Cummings
1947	Ivy	Ivy
1948	Letter from an Unknown Woman	Lisa Berndle
	The Emperor Waltz	Countess Johanna Augusta Franziska
	You Gotta Stay Happy	Dee Dee Dillwood
	Kiss the Blood Off My Hands	Jane Wharton
1950	September Affair	Marianne "Manina" Stuart
	Born to Be Bad	Christabel Caine Carey
1951	Darling, How Could You!	Alice Grey
	Othello	Page	Uncredited
1952	Something to Live For	Jenny Carey
	Ivanhoe	Rowena
1953	Decameron Nights	Fiametta/Bartolomea/Ginevra/Isabella
	Flight to Tangier	Susan Lane
	The Bigamist	Eve Graham
1954	Casanova's Big Night	Francesca Bruni	Alternative title: Mr. Casanova
1956	Serenade	Kendall Hale
	Beyond a Reasonable Doubt	Susan Spencer
1957	Island in the Sun	Mavis Norman
	Until They Sail	Anne Leslie
1958	A Certain Smile	Françoise Ferrand
1961	The Light That Failed	Hostess	TV movie
	Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea	Dr. Susan Hiller
1962	Tender Is the Night	Baby Warren
1966	The Witches	Gwen Mayfield	Alternative title: The Devil's Own
1978	The Users	Grace St. George	TV movie
1986	Dark Mansions	Margaret Drake	TV movie
1994	Good King Wenceslas	Queen Ludmilla	TV movie